The present embodiments relate to a particle therapy system.
In particle therapy, a particle beam including protons or heavy ions (e.g., carbon ions) is created with a suitable accelerator. The particle beam is guided in a radiation channel and exits via an exit window of the radiation channel into an irradiation chamber where the irradiation of a patient is undertaken. Depending on the design of the irradiation chamber, this can be done via a fixed beam exit window (e.g., fixed beam irradiation chambers) but also via a rotatable gantry to allow radiation from a number of angles.
The costs involved in generating and steering a particle beam are greater by comparison with conventional radiation methods such as, for example, with high-energy x-ray beams. In order to still be able to work efficiently, a particle therapy system usually includes a number of treatment chambers arranged in the vicinity of one another, in each of which patients can be irradiated. While an irradiation process is being carried out in one of the treatment chambers, patients can be prepared in the other treatment chambers for a subsequent irradiation session or can be removed after a completed irradiation. This enables sensible use to be made of times at which no irradiation is being carried out in an irradiation chamber.
The treatment chambers are usually arranged in a particle therapy system such that access to the treatment chambers is possible from a shared corridor and/or antechamber. Usually further chambers (e.g., therapy planning rooms, lounges for patients or doctors, preparation chambers and/or examination chambers of patients and similar chambers), which are used in the particle therapy system, can be entered from the shared corridor and/or antechamber.
Since significant radiation in the form of higher-energy photon radiation, for example, can occur in an irradiation chamber because of the radiation treatment, the treatment chambers are constructed with radiation shielding such that other areas of the particle therapy installation (e.g., the corridor and/or antechamber) are not subjected to the radiation occurring in the irradiation chamber.
This is partly made possible by thick walls, which at least partly surround the irradiation chamber. Furthermore, solutions are known in which the access to the irradiation chamber is implemented by a serpentine or labyrinthine access path into which ceiling curtains can be drawn in some cases. This prevents the irradiation occurring in the irradiation chamber from penetrating to the outside through the serpentine or labyrinthine access path. Such access to an irradiation chamber is known, for example, from WO 2004/013865 A1.